President Barack Obama called House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) on Monday and asked him to strip funding for birth control out of the $825 billion economic stimulus legislation that is set for a House vote on Wednesday.

Sex is out of the stimulus bill

The sex is out of the stimulus bill, according to House Democratic aides.

President Barack Obama called House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) on Monday and asked him to strip funding for birth control out of the $825 billion economic stimulus legislation that is set for a House vote on Wednesday.

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While the president “believed that the policy of increased funding for family planning was the right one ... he didn’t believe that this bill was the vehicle to make that happen,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday.

The call came a day before Obama met with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill to try to drum up support for the package.

Though they are only a small fraction of the total cost of the bill, the funds had become a rallying cry for Republicans who question what they see as wasteful spending.

“How you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives?” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) asked after meeting with the president at the White House on Friday. “How does that stimulate the economy?”

Waxman had included the funds as part of a $300 million package to slow the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

The proposal aimed to reduce costs for the states by making it easier for states to pay for contraception for women who qualified under Medicaid and whose income was 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said the family planning funds were problematic.

"I don't think I have heard from the administration," he said about cutting the funds, "but I think that that will not be an issue.”

“I think that one might be an issue,” he told reporters.

But some Democrats said they had hoped the funds would stay.

“Long term, it’s not only the right thing to do; I think it’s the cost-effective thing to do,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that she had “no apologies” for the proposal.

“The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now,” she said. “The contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.”